The plea – “We are starving and need food and water”- that an Atlanta-area detective turned up from New Mexico marked a dramatic twist in a child abduction case involving a 3-year-old Clayton County boy whose father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, took him away last December.
AJC The detective forwarded the message to Taos County, New Mexico Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe, who executed a search warrant Friday on a makeshift compound that authorities believed was operated by armed Muslim extremists.
After a standoff with two metro Atlanta men inside the heavily armed encampment, officers arrested and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj — the fugitive wanted in the child abduction case as well as Lucas Allen Morten. But they weren’t the only ones at the property that had no running water, plumbing or electricity.
Deputies discovered 11 children, ages ranging from 1 to 15, and at least three women — believed to be their mothers — living there. Sheriff Hogrefe said in a statement they “looked like Third World refugees not only with no food or fresh water, but no shoes, personal hygiene and basically dirty bags for clothes.”
Morten is charged with harboring a fugitive, and Wahhaj faces arrest on a child abduction warrant from Georgia. His missing son, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, was not at the compound and none of the adults detained — including the three women who were questioned would offer information about his possible whereabouts.
The sheriff’s news release Saturday said his office had been investigating the case for two months along with the FBI and authorities in Clayton County. FBI agents had been conducting surveillance on the compound, but federal authorities did not believe there was probable cause to conduct a search, the sheriff said. That changed when the Clayton County detective forwarded the tip to the sheriff’s office.
Eight deputies and four state officers executed the warrant Friday morning. They believed the occupants “were most likely heavily armed and considered extremist Muslims,” the release said. Wahhaj was holed up in the compound with a loaded AR-15 rifle, five 30-round magazines and four loaded pistols, including one he kept in his pocket. Additional ammo was found scattered in the compound.
The search for the 3-year-old boy continues.
Guy Ice says
The FBI dragged their feet on this for MONTHS! The actual owners of the property gave them permission to enter. They tried getting them evicted also. This went on for months and months. The Taos County Sheriffs Office went in on their own, regardless of the FBIs status. Bravo to those local cops for doing the right thing.
RealFreedomFighter says
They don’t want the western civilized life. Finally, radical islam criminalized the way other extremist groups have been.
IsraelRules says
and no mention from David Muir 6:30 news about the jihadis..of course, the rat bastard news media
Gourdhead says
As one would expect, no mention on the news of the little boy being muslim and very little about the two scumbags being slimes.
Sharon Hutchinson says
The MSM has been shying away from even mentioning that this is an armed terrorist compound. CNN was even questioning the veracity of this story, but of course one would expect such reporting from them. Why did the FBI not act before? One wonders that if anyone did not mention the plight of the children would that agency have even acted at all. How many more of these camps are located in the US, and why are they allowed to even exist?
Questions which are begging for answers….
BigFek says
Saw this story covered on Channel 7 in Australia. Turned to my better half and said to her that I bet that there is not one single mention of anything to do do with Islam or muslims. Little surprise I was right..
These rats nest enclaves which are located all over the States and metasticised under Obongo the Kenyan need to be eliminated and would no doubt provide great training for, Delta Force, Rangers etc.
Mohammed Wazza Paedophile says
3,2,1… CAIR & SPLC will be springing into action on how racist & Islamophobic this whole event is. They were all suitably attired for the 7th Century.
liberalassistance says
Hmmm…16 muslims, armed, squatting in a filthy, slum, no water…plenty of islam.
Yup. That’s diversity.
bonita says
I’m often reminded of the moral story of the ‘fox and the scorpion’, somehow people have convinced themselves that violent, rapey muslims couldn’t happen here. It happens every day. The scorpion does what scorpions do, its their nature, just like muslims.
Jack says
Somali or converts to isLAME as they look to me.Im sur CAIR will spin it somehow.
Az gal says
The women were wearing “dirty bags for clothes.” One guess what kind of people these are?
The kid is dead. Another honor killing, unpunishable by Quranic decree.
David Rasch says
This is the type behavior democratic socialists et. al. write of as something experienced elsewhere in society, therefore not attributable to moslemism.
martelsson says
What a surprise! Weapons. No doubt, the fault is us evil non-Muslims getting in the way with storing the weapons at the Islamic center…